During the last week of October, 1997, the world
witnessed a number of significant events which only a few weeks prior, would have been
noteworthy for their improbability. Who would have ever envisioned that the leader of the
world's largest communist party and the head of most populous nation on Earth, China, a
previous pariah amongst nations, would be striking the gavel for the opening session of
the New York City Stock Exchange? This visitor to the land of the Statue of Liberty comes
from the land where pro-democracy demonstrators were brutally crushed trying to erect a
statue of liberty of their own in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Not only did Jiang Zemin, president of the People's
Republic of China, enter and worship at the capitalist church of the almighty dollar, he
did so after the Dow Jones Index and the stock market, registered its largest single day's
losses in history  a mere "correction" by stock analyst standards.

The Dow industrial average lost 554.26 points, or
7.2 percent overnight in the New York Stock Exchange. Coincidentally, it was the Hong Kong
stock market, now part of communist China, that is blamed for being the triggered for drop
in the Index. Just what is the Dow Jones index? Why has this index suddenly become
the focus of so much attention? What does the stock market reflect and how relevant is it
to the average working class person?

Football

We have football-institutionalized the stock market
with commentators, scorekeepers, statisticians, play-by-play reporting, video tape replay,
excitement, cheerleading, icon recognition, etc.  the latest addition of which is
none other than the ruler of the country that brings you billions of dollars of goods made
by prison slave labor  Jiang Zemin.

The football sport attitude on covering the stock
market puts forth the proposition that something other than what was happening in the
United States was responsible for the recent mini-crash, recently and cutely referred to
as a crashlet. It was Hong Kong versus New York to be followed by New York versus
London. All the while, we just might miss the contributing domestic events at work.

Alexander Cockburn writing, "The Witch Hunt and
the Crash" in the November 17 issue of The Nation, states,

The plunge on Wall Street had far less to do
with the Asian markets than with what Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on
October 8. In testimony before Congress he warned that the economy was growing at an
unsustainable rate and inflation was a virtual certainty unless job growth slowed. Once
the word 'inflation' starts forming on Greenspan's lips, everyone knows that the next shoe
likely to drop is a hike in interest rates and economic slowdown. So here we come to a
truth about one of the 'fundamentals' of today's economy. When Greenspan talks about wages
rising too fast (thus threatening profits), what he really means is wages rising at all.

Imagine that. When wages go up, the stock market
goes down. When workers' jobs disappear, CEO bonuses go up. When unemployment gets too
low, more layoffs commence. Cockburn further states that "one-third of the US labor
force makes $15,000 or less." God forbid these folks get a raise! Such action would
severely negatively affect the stock market, bringing the Dow down. Why? Because the
overabundance of cheaper domestic labor would begin to diminish, and in turn, cause wage
demand to go up. Corporate profits would slow or decline. I can hear the stock market
football fans cheer as the index goes up while the jobs go down. I can hear the cheering,
"Give me a 'D'...an 'O'...a 'W'...an 'N'... What's that spell? Downsizing! Louder!
DOWNSIZING."

Bedtime

Imagine going to bed at night contemplating one's
holdings in General Motors Corporation (or any other) stock, feeling satisfied by the
daily turn of events which posted a large gain in stock value precipitated by massive
layoffs. Imagine actually cheering for a rise in the Dow knowing that for every tick up,
people lose their jobs and wages stagnate or go down. Then again, people cheer watching
grown men wearing helmets and padding knock themselves silly while short skirted
cheerleaders wave their rear ends at the crowd  all the while hiding the reality
that the main reason for the sports existence is to provide interludes on television
between the (beer, tampon and McDonald's) commercials. Cockburn concludes,

Here's our fundamental truth. Today's
"boom" -- a boom in which relatively few have struck it rich -- is in fact a
wage freeze. And the minute it looks as though the wage freeze won't hold, the system goes
into shock.

The Catholic Worker of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin
would say that such profit, taken on the backs of working people, is unchristian, contrary
to the teachings of Jesus, immoral and evil. "The aim of the Catholic Worker movement
is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." The
Catholic Worker newspaper, May 1997, states,

In economics, private and state capitalism
bring about an unjust distribution of wealth, for the profit motive guides decisions.
Those in power live off the sweat of others' brows, while those without power are robbed
of a just return for their work. Usury (the charging of interest above administrative
costs) is a major contributor to the wrongdoing intrinsic to this system. We note,
especially, how the world debt crisis leads poor countries into greater deprivation and a
dependency from which there is no foreseeable escape. Here at home, the number of hungry
and homeless and unemployed people rises in the midst of increasing affluence.

In labor, human need is no longer the reason for
human work. Instead, the unbridled expansion of technology, necessary to capitalism and
viewed as 'progress,' holds sway. Jobs are concentrated in productivity and administration
for a "high-tech", war-related, consumer society of disposable goods, so that
laborers are trapped in work that does not contribute to human welfare.

Furthermore, as jobs become more specialized, many
people are excluded from meaningful work or are alienated from the products of their
labor. Even in farming, agribusiness has replaced agriculture, and, in all areas, moral
restraints are run over roughshod, and a disregard for the laws of nature now threatens
the very planet.

While Jiang Zemin might open the stock market, I
doubt Jesus would have.

The Alternative Index

Wouldn't it be more valuable to society if the most
important indices reflected the state of people's lives rather than the supposed state of
the economy through the stock market? I propose a streaming tickertape index, similar to
the familiar fraction-based line which appears at the bottom of many news broadcasts. It
would display an ever-changing poverty index, unemployment index, hunger index,
homelessness index, illiteracy index, educational index and healthcare and medical
coverage index.

We might even create a consortium of indices which
reflect the overall state of the people. We could call it "The Standards of the
Poor." A wonderful vision might be the market cheering at the end of the day, traders
being proud of their hard work of staffing telephones, yelling at each other, satisfied as
the closing bells tolls, that their day's labor has lead to the biggest drop in the
homelessness index in US history! Imagine.

Jonathan Rowe, writing in Adbusters, Winter
1996 writes, economists " cant tell misery from well-being, only more from
less." A society should be judged not on how the wealthy are doing but rather how the
poor and the dispossessed are faring. A society is, after all, only as good as the
condition of the worst of the lot within its midst.

Forever

Recently, a colleague and I traded words over the
recent stock market events. I suggested that the stock market's operating philosophy is
one which is leading the planet down the path of ultimate crisis and world-wide convulsion
through inevitable stock market-precipitated non-market and non-market-controllable
forces, i.e. monumental environmental degradation, diminished arable land, shortage of
potable water, lack of clean air, new virulent diseases, global climactic change,
terrorism, war, etc.

Discouraging witness can be found in the intensity
of El Nino, the rapid increase in global warming, the reemergence of antibiotic resistant
tuberculosis and pneumonia, phiesteria poisoning of southeast US waterways, horrendous
smoke pollution of southeast Asia, biological dead zones (such as Chernobyl), teenage
suicide, etc. It is, after all, consumerism, the spend, charge, buy, throw out, replace,
cycle of then American, and now global, capitalism, that is the fuel for the stock
markets' profit engines.

The idea that this can continue forever (or even
much longer) without soon-to-be unignorable consequences is an illusion of short-term
greed driven by ego self-interest. That is, as long as we believe it can continue
for us, as long as we live and our profits are maintained and
maximized, then we can conveniently ignore that it cannot go on forever. That
convenience may soon come to an end.

We can turn the other way and revel in the mow
profit without giving consideration to others. Perhaps, this is what we mean when we use
the word entitlement. That is, while I am in a privileged position, I, am
entitled. Everyone else is not entitled until they can raise themselves to at least the
position where they can invest and be as smart as I am. In others words, their
plight is their own fault.

Co-Opted

So many people live their lives with a sense that
something is amiss. Why do we persist in pretending otherwise? I believe we have been
co-opted, even by ourselves. We have been duped by the same market forces that own the
media, buy off the politicians, produce the magazines, print the newspapers, manufacture
the food, control the health services, loan the money and own the wealth. Here is an
example:

A number of years back, not that long ago, people
believed in hopeful, opposition activism. They believed that they could institute positive
change through personal involvement. This was, for the most part, how women achieved the
right to vote, civil rights became a priority meeting with some success, a president was
forced to resign, an unpopular war came to an end. When environmentalism became
popularized as the new visible cause, Madison Avenue, the political mouthpiece and
strategist for the stock market, created instruments through which one could be
politically active through spending.

Contributing to a cause became as easy as using the
credit card, all with a guaranteed small amount channeled to the movement or organization
of our choice. With this shift from doing, to spending under the guise of doing, almost
every cause and dissent has been effectively neutralized. We can invest in Green Funds,
the Calvert Group, Peace Funds. We can buy products such as ice cream or candy, where
profits presumably go to local native nut farmers who help save rain forests. We can even
purchase eco-friendly toilet paper, paper towels, etc.

The president, Bill Clinton, knows the technique
well. He has had years of experience co-opting any position which in any way challenges
his standing, image or opportunity. That's how he got re-elected  co-opting most
Republican positions.

A recent example was Secretary of State, Madeline
Albright's announcement that the US would not sign the landmine treaty, but rather go
"beyond" the treaty, unilaterally deciding to remove landmines world-wide.
They'll remain in those locations that suits our interest, however, such as the North -
South Korea border, Guantanamo Cuba, etc.

I suggest that Bill and Madeline look into issuing a
credit card called "The Free Land Card". It's motto might be, "The more you
spend, the safer the world becomes." We could even have spots on television where
government employees hold cute children in foreign lands suggesting that,

For just a few dollars of spending each day, this
child might live to be an adult with all their limbs intact. Isn't that kind of protection
worth using your credit card each day? Use the Free Land Card and 70 cents of every $100
purchased will go into the Clearing the Landmines that I Laid Down Fund. For more
information, call the pentagon at 555-PENTAGON - "the people you can trust.

Pizza as Union Busting

Recently, JeanneE told me of a Pizza Hut commercial,
which depicts strikers on a picket line. There is a large Pizza Hut delivery. The strikers
ooh and ahh, and while eating pizza, gratefully look up toward management with thankful
faces. Yet, when "Adbusters Magazine" attempts to buy time from the networks to
air an uncommercial, they are turned away.

This wonderful uncommercial, in actuality an
anti-commercial, begins by showing the outline of a naked model, as slim as fashion
requires, with obvious references to perfume and glamour. As the camera slowly pans in,
this woman, rather than being sexy, is doubled over throwing up into the commode. She has
bulimia  quite an indictment.

Even at the going rate, this uncommercial depicting
the negative consequences of buying into consumerism could not find a network from which
to purchase air time. When I brought this up to people who have faith in the system, their
response was, "Well. It is a free market." That is, they have the right to sell
and buy anything they want. Curious. It was my understanding that The People own the
natural resources, and the air waves belong to them. People's access to the radio spectrum
should be similar to the their access to air and water.

Uncommercials for International Buy Nothing day, the
day after Thanksgiving - a Friday, were also refused the right to airtime. "A press
release from Adbusters recently reported that the NBC, ABC and CBS television
networks have refused to run a Buy Nothing Day campaign spot produced by the Media
Foundation." The November 29, 1996 issue of Imprint, reports,

It seems that freedom of the press belongs to
those who own one, and a commercial broadcast system is incapable of dissenting on such an
important social and environmental issue. Without television selling millions of consumers
to advertisers, what's the point?

November

This is the month of Thanksgiving, that is as
differentiated from Giving Thanks This year, the holiday falls on November 28. It marks
the beginning of the holiday shopping season (or was that Columbus Day?). Called, Black
Friday, this is the biggest shopping day of the year. The stock market faithful want us to
spend, spend, spend and spend some more  not only on that day, but all the shopping
days till Christmas. Afterward, we can spend some more by buying the same items on sale
that we overpaid for just a few weeks ago. Yes. Our economy is linked to our consumption
and overconsumption. Is it not a good idea, and in all our best interest, to overeat,
overdrink and overstuff on Thanksgiving? The stock market thinks so.

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving has become a minor
aspect of the holiday, just as insignificant as celebrating the birth of the Prince of
Peace on Christmas has become. These holidays, too, have been co-opted, becoming mere
metaphors in name, in actuality synonyms for consumption. Wall Street, however, remains,
expectant and optimistic, encouraging us to continue thinking less and buying more...much
more.

Turkeys

A case in point, the cherished US Thanksgiving meal
with its obligatory centerpiece of turkey. Does it matter that the turkeys we eat differ
vastly from wild turkeys which are free to roam and live a normal life. Our "eating
turkeys" are the product of the artificial insemination of birds that are so
pathologically obese that the males are too heavy to mount the females and thus require
human intervention for procreation and propagation. Hillary Hannah, writing in the
December 1992 and January 1993 issues of The Vegetarian explains,

Factory farmed turkeys are bred in huge
breeder sheds known as either pole barns or broiler sheds where controlled lighting fools
the birds into changing their breeding cycle. The breeding cycle is triggered by the
number of daylight hours received, so by prolonging "daylight" hours
artificially the bird is conned into producing turkeys ready for Christmas consumption...

Turkeys were not the hot holiday food product until
the 1950's when the poultry industry went on a campaign to develop modern turkey semen
extraction and insemination methods. Today, this, along with intensive artificial
breeding, has contributed heavily to the successful marketing of turkeys and turkey meat
as the staple food of the Christmas holiday season.

"Of the 300 million turkeys raised in 1996, an
estimated 45 million (15 percent) are consumed at Thanksgiving, an average of 675 million
pounds of turkey!", according to Stephanie Bergman of the National Turkey Federation.
When we eat turkey, it is difficult, even numbing, to think about the implications of the
statistics. That might be done before hand with a little bit of planning. We might think a
bit more before we buy.

Hannah further describes the treatment of turkeys
during the transportation and slaughterhouse cycle. That process, gruesome as it is, is
well documented by inspectors and covered by numerous Internet sights and publications. Do
we dare read it? Do we care? Wall Street does. Its betting, no counting on
our not caring.

My intent is not to create new vegetarians, although
that is a healthy option (and eating lower on the food chain is ethically, environmentally
superior - yes - superior), but rather to point out that people have stopped thinking
about what they eat, what they buy, where they invest, how they celebrate and how they
live. Perhaps, it is too inconvenient for us to make changes in any of these aspects of
living.

More to the point, perhaps, doing so would lead us
back to the stock market, and in the process, bring us face to face with the option that we
take responsibility for contributing to the profits of corporations that use inhumane
methods of food production, prison slave labor which makes the trinkets and lights we put
on our Christmas trees, child slave labor which manufactures handmade rugs, sports'
equipment, and mass farming techniques which unnecessarily brutalize and contribute to
most of our water pollution.

Finally, though it is extremely difficult in a
capitalist society to extricate oneself and one's economic resources from the system, we
might begin by making small changes in our investments and life style that slightly reduce
suffering. With some success, we might prevent ourselves from completely becoming
commodities, raised, educated, bought, sold and discarded (in our old age) like the
products that we so blindly buy and throw away.